Mens Rea

Gwendolen Harleth at Roulette Table

Spoiler alert.The scene in George Eliot's Daniel Deronda where Gwendolen Harleth seeks absolution should be required reading for law school students--addressing, as it does, the concept of mens rea. In the novel, George Eliot hones in on a moment. In a boating accident Gwendolen hesitates before throwing a rope to her hated husband, the pompous and imperious Henleigh Mallinger Grandcourt. Deronda offers that Grandcourt was past saving. However, intention is the subject at hand. What was Gwendolen's state of mind? She will never be able to relieve her guilty conscience, but is she guilty of malice of forethought?

read "Frankel" by Francis Levy, Vol. 1 Brooklyn

and listen to "Mustang Sally" by Wilson Pickett